Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-02-19
A WOLF IN SLEEPS CLOTHING.

ono moIninS Just at ulNllRut u mum
Der Of years ago, a farmer named Peter
Rush, ivin near Hilisboro, Illinois,
while on his way from the house to the
barn to care for the stock, discovered
Q badly wounded man lying on the path.
The stranger, rs was afterwards
known, had been to the barn in the
night, but failing to secure entrance
had started for the house. Overcome
by pain and weakness, he had fallen in
o faint, and had been lying on the
ground an hour when discovered by the
farmer.
The wounded man was at once re-
moved 10 the house and placed on q
bed, and he soon revived enough to tell
his story,
He said that he was a jewelry ped
dler, going about the country with q
companion and partner. The two had
auarrelled the previous evening, and
Skelling, as he gave his name, had been
shot and left by the roadside to die.
He had a bullet in the shoulder and
another in the calf of the leg. Both
were still in the flesh, and when Rush
announced that he would bring q doc
tor. Skelling begged him not to do {.
His wounds were not dangerous, and
he would run all the risks.
The Rushes, man and wife, were
simple people, and the stranger found
ready believers in any story he told.
He induced them to give him an up
stairs bedroom, and to conceal from
everyone the fact of his presence in the
house.
In two weeks he was able to be
about, and at the end Of the third he
disappeared.
The BUSHES found him TO be o we'll
educated, pleasant-spoken, and kind
hearted man. He not only passed
much of his time reading the Bible,
but was full of religious quotations aud
familiar with the writings of the
apostles.
He had visited all the principal cities
in America, and the long evenings were
spent in telling them of the sights
he had seen and the adventures he had
passed through.
Nothing had been said as to pay,
and the BUSHES did not know whether
he had money or was penniless. The
secret of his presence was preserved
from the ~peighbors, who were daily in
and out, and as he grew better, Skel-
ling boosted that the man who tried to
kill him in cold blood would soon be
hunted down and Justly punished
nna ayansnV nc tha thtaA cat ta1EtnU
there came a strange knock at the door.
Skelling had time u get upstairs before
1t was answered.
The traveller proved to be Q detective
from Chicago, on the track Of q trio Of
criminals who had committed several
robberies in and about the Garden City.
Their last exploit had been the robbery
of a treasure chest belonging to a band
of fifty Norwegian immigrants going to
Wisconsin.
The trunk had been taken from the
midst of'them as they sat in the depot,
and had not been missed until the men
were well of. They had been tracked
TO Pekin, and thence to Springfield and
Pana, and at the latter place it was be-
lieved they had cut across the country
in q rig stolen from q farmer. The rig
hal subsequently been founl near Van
d.lII, abandoned by the roadside.
The officer questioned the Pushes
very closely as to what strangers had
been seen in the neighborhood, and
they answered all inquiries without Civ
ing their guest away. While they did
not in tho least suspecthlm of being one
OF the trio, they had passed their word
not to reveal his presence.
The detective was in the house about
an hour, and when he was ready to
depart he discovered that the horse and
buggy be had come from Pana with had
been stolen Rush ] mt him a saddle
horse, and, after a search up and down
the country roads, the officer returned
to town in no agreeable frame Of mind.
When Ruh went upstairs to give
his guest the news the man had disap-
peared, ayIng opened the window and
climbed down on a shed. There was
no question but he had taken the de-
tectiye's rig, and though the BUSHES
were rather slow-witted. it did not
take them long to come to the con-
clusion that they had freely and
generously entertained one Of the
criminals.
IL was nearly five years after the
stranger left the farm house that Rush
one day received a letter from the
prison at Joliet asking him to come at
once aud ask for q convict named VIII
liam O'Neill.
lie went. and he found the man in
the hospital and dying Of consumption.
O'Neill proved TO be Sknlling. Further
tLan that he acknowledged that he was
one OF the robbers who stole the treas
ure chest Of the immigrants. They
were proceeding across the country,
and got into an alteration within about
a mile Of Rush's place, with the result
that O'Neill was shot.
After his escape from the farm house
he visited various States, continuing
his criminal career, and was finally
jagged at Joliet on q fifteen years
sentence.
lie had not forgotten the kindness
shown him at the farm house, and he
was now ready 10 repay it. He gave
Hush directions where to find a sum OF
money in Chicago, and Rush went
there and got it-nesrly s., 900 in gold
and greenbacks. Inside of a fortnight